We are firm that the KPK has collected strong evidence before naming someone a suspect."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Indonesias anti-graft agency KPK is applying a new strategy to deal with pretrial suits after it lost the case against former Makassar mayor Ilham Arief Sirajuddin on May 21, Acting Commissioner Johan Budi SP stated.
"After we lost the pretrial case of Pak (Mr) Ilham, we have decided to use a new strategy. The pretrial courts ruling on Pak Ilham has prompted us to change our strategy," he noted after attending the session on the case of former director general of taxation Hadi Poernomo here on Thursday.
Johan admitted that his presence in court was aimed to support the KPKs legal bureau team besides overseeing the implementation of the new strategy.
Poernomo was named a graft suspect in connection with the decision to accept a tax complaint from PT BCA in the 1999 fiscal year.
"From the beginning, we have perceived that pretrial suits only deal with procedure, and therefore, you may later see how the KPKs legal bureau team will deal with Pak Hadi Poernomos case, which will differ from the way in which the team earlier dealt with Pak Ilhams case," he pointed out.
Johan stated that according to the new strategy, the KPK will reveal pieces of evidence as per the procedure used to name someone a suspect.
"We are firm that the KPK has collected strong evidence before naming someone a suspect. This time, it would be proven in the case of Pak Hadi," he affirmed.
Johan emphasized that the KPK, in principle, respects the right of a suspect to submit a pretrial lawsuit if he feels that he has been unjustly implicated as a suspect.
On the other hand, he however urged the public to respect the KPKs authority while it carries out the law enforcement process.
"With regard to pretrial, we certainly respect whatever the judge will later decide," he stated.
The Constitutional Court, in its ruling on April 28, 2015, extended the coverage of pretrial objects to include suspect naming, confiscation, and search.
Johan expressed optimism regarding the implementation of the new strategy.
In the case of Ilham, Judge Yuningtyas Upiek Kartikawati noted in the verdict that the KPK had failed to present at least two original pieces of evidence and some of the evidences were mere copies and some even bore no signatures of the investigators, and therefore, arrived at a decision that the naming of Ilham as a suspect was illegitimate.
The KPK has so far considered pretrial only to determine whether or not the naming of a suspect was correct and hence did not present the original pieces of evidence, which it considered as materials only to be presented during a trial of the case.
(Reporting by Yashinta Difa/Uu.H-YH/INE/KR-BSR/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2015
